10 April 2006

Sinn Fein in bid for Green Paper on unity

Sinn Fein today held the first of a series of local launches of its campaign to persuade the Dublin Government to produce a Green Paper on Irish unity.

Party president Gerry Adams attended the launch in the members' room at Belfast City Hall - just four days after a stronger British and Irish 'partnership' arrangement was mooted in the event of continued deadlock over devolution.

The Green Paper has been a touchstone issue for Sinn Fein for some time, designed to force an Irish government to seriously face the issue of planning for integrating Northern Ireland into the South.

"There has never ever been debate in Leinster House on how you would actually go about establishing Irish unity.

"This is about starting that debate," a party source said.

The idea for a Green Paper, the term for a document floating government ideas, has also been linked to a plan for the appointment of a minister who would be devoted to monitoring the progress of the North-South bodies set up by the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Adams has suggested the paper could be followed by a more substantial White Paper.